Objective
Identifying Dark Matter is a top priority in Particle Physics and Cosmology. Among Dark Matter candidates, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) play a special role, since they naturally arise from well motivated extensions of the standard model of particle physics. As I have argued in a recent \textsl{Nature} paper, with the advent of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and of a new generation of astroparticle experiments, the moment of truth has come for WIMPs, for we will either discover them in the next 5 to 10 years, or we will inevitably witness the decline of the WIMP paradigm.
My collaborators and I have actually been preparing for this crucial moment for Dark Matter searches by setting up sophisticated statistical tools, strong connections with experimental collaborations, and an extensive expertise in theoretical models. We are now ready to perform the most complete analysis of Dark Matter data (from direct, indirect and accelerator searches, including all astrophysical uncertainties) in the framework of the most promising BSM (Beyond the Standard Model) theories, including Supersymmetry and Universal Extra Dimensions.
Backed from a well established network of international collaborators, this project aims at becoming part of the theoretical backbone of astroparticle activities in Europe, and to exploit the data that will become available from the LHC at CERN, as well as from several infrastructures included in the ESFRI and ASPERA roadmaps, such as underground Dark Matter detectors and Neutrinos and Cherenkov Telescopes. No matter what the experimental results are, the impact on our understanding of the Universe will be dramatic, for we will either severely constrain possible extensions of the Standard Model, and push them to unnatural territory, or we will finally obtain incontrovertible for Dark Matter, therefore opening a new era in Particle Physics and Cosmology.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsneutrinos
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsparticle accelerator
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyastrophysicsdark matter
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyphysical cosmology
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Call for proposal
ERC-2011-StG_20101014
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
ERC-SG - ERC Starting GrantHost institution
1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands